Improvement in number-plates for boors



'iinitrd ,Stairs sirntdiiiirr.

JAMES T. SMITH, 0F WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLIIMBIA.

Letters Patent No. 99,019, dated January 18, 1870.

The Schedulereferred to in these Letters Patent and making part of the same.

To all whom itinmy concern.-

Be it known that I, J .mins T. SMITH, of Washington, e in the county of NVashington, and District of Columbia, have invented a new and valuable Improvement in Means of Constructing and Arranging Tactile Representations of Numbers; and I do'hereby dep clare-thatthe following is a full, clear, and exact dethe numbers of dwellings, streets, buildings, and other lthings known or designated by figures; and

It consists in providing novei means by which the lactual numbers of such streets, tenements, or things may be known, by the touch ofthe inquirer.

The drawings represent both raised and painted numerals, together with a door-knob and door-plates, with raised conical ball or other shaped protuberances thereon, which I denominate bosses. These bosses may be castwith the raised figures, plates, or knobs, or they may be formed in the shape of pins, with heads att-ached, and driven into such plates, knobs, or figures. They may also be united with such plates, knobs, or figures, by solder or other suitable means of attachment.

I sometimes attach these bosses to the front side of the knob, sometimes to its periphery, and sometimes to the rear side thereof, as shown on fig. 5 of the drawings. I sometimes place these bosses on a door or other part of a building or room, to indicate its num` ber, and also upon a lamp or other post, to indicate the number of a street.-

The bosses above mentioned are marked a on the drawings, and intended to represent, by their numbers and positions, the actual number of the tenement or other thing to which they are attached'.

For example, upon the numeral 1, I aiix one boss;

lupon the numeral 2, two bosses, and so on, to and including the `numeral 9, the number oi' said bosses always indicating, by their sum total, the figure upon which they are placed. The cipher maybe indicated by ten bosses, but upon raised figures they may be omitted from the cipher.- When the iigures are merely painted, and not raised, ten bosses upon the cipher will be required. I sometimes, however, indicate the cipher by means of a bar, as shown at c, on iig. 4 of the drawings.

Upon door-plates and knobs the bosses are arranged, either as shown on iigs. l or 2, or 4, or in an equivalent manner, according to the taste of the manufacturer. As arranged onfig. 1, they indicate 54S; upon fig. 2, theyread 37 5; and upon iig. 4, they stand for 4,520, the bar c being used inthe place and stead of a cipher.

The reading should always commence on the lefthand side of the plate, knob, figure, or series of iigures.

Depressions or grooves of any suitable forms in the plates, iigures, or knobs, may be made -to serve the same purpose as bosses, and in some positions they are found desirable, but for ordinary use I recommend the bosses, as described.

The bosses possess at least this advantage over grooves: when made of shining metal, and kept well polished, they are discernible by the eye, and may be read whenever a faint gleam of light is upon them.

My device will enable an inquirer to ascertain the number of any tenement, room, or street, even when shrouded in intense darkness, and ablind man may also find such number through its agency.

My device is not only applicable to tenements and streets, but also to cars, hacks, express-wagons, carriages, travelling-trunks, baggage-checks, and generally to anything that can be indicated by numbers.

I claim, as my invention- The method of arrangement of the raised or depressed indicators upon plates, knobs, or figures, as herein described, substantially as and for the purposes specified.

In testimony that I lclaim the above, I have hereunto subscribed my name, in the presence of two wit.-

nesses.

JAMES T. SMITH. Witnesses:

'.I. B. WUNDERLY, E. W. ANDERSON. 

